Wednesday, August 15, 2018

For such a time as this

The Episcopal Church’s triennial General Convention, which met in Austin
a couple of weeks ago and which I did not attend, interested me more for what
did not happen that for what actually transpired.

Don’t misunderstand me. Lots of good decisions were made. In no
particular order, some of General Convention’s decisions that I applaud
include:

·Readmitting Cuba as a diocese

·Authorizing use of specific inclusive language at places in some of
our Eucharistic liturgies

·Authorizing the use of same sex marriage rites in all dioceses

·Indefinitely deferring publication of a new prayer book (I’ve
previously argued on this website here
and here
that any new edition of the prayer book should be electronic, not printed)

·Support for justice for the Palestinians

Given the
controversial nature of some of these decisions, your list of good decisions
may vary from mine.

Regardless
of one’s opinion of General Convention’s decisions, what deeply concerns me is
that the preponderance of the Convention focused on issues internal to the Episcopal
Church while largely ignoring the elephant in the room. Even resolutions that
appear to deal with external matters (e.g., support for justice for the
Palestinians) are important primarily because of these resolutions permit our
representatives in Washington, at the United Nations, and elsewhere to take
actions on our behalf.

The
convention’s agenda represents an excellent example of the urgent supplanting
the important. The Episcopal Church is dying. Short-term numbers
notwithstanding, the Episcopal Church has hemorrhaged members for decades. That
long-term decline is the elephant in the room. Reversing that decline is our
most important, though not necessarily most urgent, agenda item. Unlike many
other agenda items, no group of advocates has coalesced around reversing our
numerical decline. The issue generally languishes unaddressed, in vestry,
diocesan, and church-wide meetings.

General
Convention did pass a triennial budget that emphasizes the Presiding Bishop’s
priorities, one of which is evangelism. However, as I have previously contended
on this website,
the amount of money programmed for evangelism is insufficient if we really want
to make evangelism a genuine priority. Resources are inadequate for us to
continue business as usual while prioritizing evangelism.

Obviously, our goal as Christians who live in the Episcopal tradition is
not simply perpetuating The Episcopal Church. Our goal is the increase of the
love of God and neighbor. Our Presiding Bishop repeats this message over and
over in his preaching and other communications. If we collectively are truly to
be about God’s business, then the rest of us, our denominational structures,
and our budgets need substantial realignment to reflect these two priorities.

Realigning our efforts will inescapably entail sacrificing “rice bowls”
and “sacred cows” in pursuit of more effectively and efficiently loving God and
neighbor. The issue is not whether a particular effort, program, or theme
enhances love for God and neighbor but whether there is a way to produce larger
results at a lower cost. Business as usual has failed for decades to reverse
our numerical decline. We must change or The Episcopal Church, its dioceses,
and their congregations will die.

Unfortunately, most diocesan convention vestries agendas are similar to
General Convention’s agenda. These agendas too frequently focus on business as
usual and ignore our numerical decline. Even when a diocese or vestry addresses
problems, the problems are typically internal (e.g., improving communications
or balancing the budget) and ignore the overarching problem of numerical
decline.

Color me an optimist. I believe that the arc of history bends not only
toward justice but also toward love. Externalities such as terms of address for
the deity or the prayer book’s format may change, but individuals and the world
as a whole not only need and but also want what Christians claim to offer, that
is, experience and knowledge of God’s loving, healing, reconciling, life-giving
presence.

Therefore, numerical declines indicate a failure on our part to go and
make disciples of all the world. I’m not advocating the type of evangelism
practiced by more conservative Christian denominations. One blessing in
retiring from the military chaplaincy was no longer daily having to deal with
chaplains and laity from those denominations. What I am advocating is prioritizing
marketing The Episcopal Church and its message of love in ways congruent with
our Anglican understanding and practice of Christianity. This involves hard
work, trying new initiatives, risking failure, and de-prioritizing if not
abandoning business as usual.

The Presiding Bishop’s sermon
at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle afforded the Episcopal Church
an unparalleled opportunity to share the message that God calls us to love God
and one another. Since that event, the Presiding Bishop has sought to
capitalize on the attendant publicity to further market both The Episcopal
Church and our message of love.

Most Episcopalians will never have a similar opportunity to market The
Episcopal Church or communicate God’s message of love to such a vast audience.
We can, however, look for more quotidian methods of incarnating the gospel, of
becoming a people in whom and through whom persons experience God’s love. The
protest against separating children from parents at a detention center for
illegal immigrants by General Convention attendees was one small step in this
direction. What can you do today to communicate God’s love to another person?
And what can your congregation, your diocese, and our national structures do
differently to communicate God’s love more effectively and efficiently?

God has called us for this time. Today is the time for us to set aside
the urgent and the comparatively easy (although some ongoing issues are
admittedly challenging). Now is the time for us to concentrate on the far more
important and difficult task of loving God and others so outrageously and
unreservedly that we grow both spiritually and numerically.